The Stars Came Back (34 page)

FADE IN

EXT - NIGHT - Space, not far from the corp-war robot mil-moon

The
ringed planet and moons hang in the distance.
Tajemnica
streaks by, blocky, angular, and dirty, space glowing faintly around it. Shortly behind it is a formation of four lean, lethal-looking spacecraft, streamlined for atmospheric flight. The interceptors are moving faster, the glowing molecules excited by their drives are bright.

CUT TO

INT
- NIGHT - Cockpit of lead interceptor

A handsome young man, dashing in his immaculate uniform spacesuit and perfect hair, sits comfortably strapped into his seat surrounded by controls and screens. H
is sneer of superiority sits on well-worn lines across his face.

Prince Walid: This is Prince Walid of the Cruiser
Hussein
to unregistered piece of shit freighter
Taj-shitica
. You are ordered to return to port
now
, or we will use you for target practice. Respond.

There is a pause
as he looks out the windows at his wingmen, then forward at the rapidly approaching
Tajemnica
.

Prince Walid: Last chance before we break you!

A long pause while he listens for a reply.

Prince Walid: (
Disdainfully) Didn’t think so. Cowards. (He thumbs a control) Line up behind me, time to rumble the dog!

CUT TO

EXT - NIGHT - Space not far from the robot mil-moon

V
iew from above
Tajemnica
showing the interceptors stretching out into a line. They surge forward and blaze past, close, one after another, glowing patches around them overlapping with the fainter glow surrounding
Tajemnica
, creating ripples of interference patterns in the glow where the fields interact, like intersecting ripples on a pond.

CUT TO

INT
- DAY -
Tajemnica’s
bridge

Helton, Cooper, Kaushik, Lag, Bipasha, and Allonia at their normal
places.

T
he screen a display shows the line of interceptors moving by, the bridge and the people in it shake and sway slightly as they pass.

Cooper: Not bad. Guess that’s what happens when you try to push around someone bigger than you.

Helton: Been through worse than that landing. (Into mic) Stenson, drop power on the Sokolovs.

Stenson: (OC) They broke one!

Helton: Well then, prepare to kill the other one, start getting the Harmons ready.

Lag: They’ll likely try coming around again for another pass as group. It’ll take them a while to stop and come back by us. Eight, maybe ten minutes.

On the speaker, a mechanical voice calls.

Moonlet: (OC, on cabin speaker) Challenge gallium Albert chocolate tintinnabulation
.

Ship AI: (OC, similar voice) Respond alpha arsenic Carthage galaxy trophy
.

Moonlet: (OC) Send cladistic profiler for final
.

Cooper: What the HELL?! We are outside their exclusion zone!
And
we CAN’T jump!

Helton: If we can’t transition, don’t get any closer
. If they fire, we are
all
screwed.

Everyone looks at the screens nervously. Nothing to do but wait and hope the drives
are back on line in time for the next rumble.

CUT TO

Cockpit of Prince Walid’s interceptor

Walid bounces around vigorously, and outside his windows are the ripples and glow of the interfering drive fields. A couple of warning lights flash in screens and a dedicated warning light turns red. His expression shows surprise, then anger. He looks over his instruments, thumbs a button.

Prince Walid: (
Contemptuously) Looks like they are down to one drive. Bastard barely moved! OK, when we pass back, we go by all at once, you three very close together with synced up fields. I’ll be right behind you to match and ride the interference wave you set up. That should shake them up
and
take down their remaining drive. They’ll be stuck!

CUT TO

E
ngineering

Stenson and his crew are at stations, tired and nervous. The readouts aro
und them are all over the place. Some are red, some green, a lot of yellows, a few steady, most changing every second.

Helton: (OC, on speaker) Ready or not, here they come!

Stenson: They’re online! Hit the switch whenever you want!

One of the
techs next to him closes his eyes briefly and crosses himself in silent prayer.

CUT TO

Tajemnica’s
bridge

The
crew nervously watch the screens showing the rapidly approaching quartet of ships in tight formation.

Helton: Spun up, get ready to kick ‘em into gear.

Cooper: I sure hope you know what you are doing.

Helton: (
Nodding agreement, then looking defiantly at the oncoming formation in the main screen) So, you wanna dance? No problem. Let’s dance.

Helton nods to Cooper.

Cooper: Rumble THIS!

He hits the “
Drives Online” switch, pushes up the power levers hard, twists and pushes the control yoke. At his first motion, the slight background hum of the drives abruptly changes to a wildly discordant three-tone scream as energy flows and
Tajemnica
digs her drive fields into the very fabric of the universe. As the volume ramps up, the tones start to converge in a powerful, pulsing, deep-throated scream.

CUT TO

C
ockpit of Prince Walid’s interceptor

Walid
has a wolf-like grin of contempt. Suddenly, the cabin is filled with a deep, powerful, angry, metallic voice.

Ship AI: (OC)
Your friends close, your enemies closer
!

He looks around wildly, trying to see who or what this represents. His grin of anticipation is gone.

CUT TO

Space, above the rapidly converging ships

The faint glow around
Tajemnica
disappears. The three lead interceptors have a large and bright envelope of glowing atoms around them, excited by their drives’ combined energy. Suddenly, a huge and growing blaze of angry light leaps from
Tajemnica
, much brighter than the squadron’s, as
Tajemnica
spins, rolls, and rotates sideways, presenting the largest possible target. The three ships’ course suddenly alters and they dive straight at
Tajemnica
rather than aim to pass close by, sucked in by its powerful drive field backed by vastly greater mass. The last ship manages to turn its nose away, but has too much velocity and falls towards the field’s grip nonetheless. The field surrounding the three lead ships intensifies, and they rush in, crashing and becoming crushed and splattered across the landing pads and lower hull of
Tajemnica
, one collapsing like a cartoon accordion, one shattering on an angled corner, one on an edge. As they hit, the interference patterns their drives make disappear, drives and pilots dead. The glowing field surrounding
Tajemnica
intensifies even more, extending like a great glowing arm, a blazing swarm of fireflies on a mission of doom, toward the last ship.

Cut to

Tajemnica’s
bridge

Cooper
works the controls frantically, everyone else is hangs on, and the drives are up to a beating roar. A faint undertone that nearly sounds like an old steam locomotive thundering in the distance can be heard in the thrashing the ship is inflicting on itself and the space around it.

Cut to

Engineering

Most of the readouts are way in the red, and Stenson and his crew just stand back in amazement, hanging on, wondering how much further the drives and power systems can be abused like this, the screaming of strained power systems and mechanical stress making the ship sound like it is in pain.

CUT TO

Prince Walid’s cockpit

Walid’s visor is down and he looks around frantically, trying to find some way out of the trap he’s stepped in. He is being shaken violently about, not always the same way as his ship. Over the cockpit com he hears the last thing that isn’t his own terrified scream.

Ship AI: (OC, female voice, commanding, imperious) Come to me! NOW!

CUT TO

Space, outside
Tajemnica
and the interceptor

The great glowing arm of seriously pissed off atoms glow mostly reddish
yellow, but they coruscate and shimmer with interference patterns in many colors, like an Aurora Borealis, all around the smaller ship as it shakes violently, vibrating ever faster as it’s pulled in closer and closer to
Tajemnica
. The light fades considerably all at once, the interference patterns disappear, and the shaking of the smaller craft stops. It is carefully pulled in close to
Tajemnica’s
topside, seemingly cradled in the drive field. Loose debris and the crushed and flattened hulks of the first three interceptors spin away into the void. The drive glow diffuses, extends, and reintensifies, then
Tajemnica
flips back onto her original course and starts to accelerate away.

CUT TO

Engineering

They all stare in amazement at the many readings back in the green, some yellow, and only a couple of red indicators. Levels are no longer fluctuating wildly; they are mostly stable. The background hum of drives and power systems is even and quiet. Stenson shakes his head in wonder. The others smile and slap one another on the back.

CUT TO

Tajemnica’s
bridge

Helton: THAT was perfect! Absolutely perfect!

Cooper: Wow! That was… Not quite sure how that last bit happened though.

Lag: (
Looking at displays and screens) Did I see that right? The first three wrecked, the other one shaken and
grabbed
, and it’s alongside?

Helton: (
Into mic) Stenson, I don’t see any failure lights; how’s it look there?

Stenson: (OC) I… I don’t
think
we broke anything major, but Hindu’s hamburgers we’ve got a lot of checking to do before I’ll swear to ANYTHING.

Helton: Then before we find out we can’t, let’s get the
hell out of here. I’m pretty sure they might be just a little bit annoyed that we trashed four of their shiny new interceptors. Nice and easy, just fast enough for us to leave before they can launch anything at us.

Cooper:
Aye-aye!

Lag: And we deleted at least one prince from their roster. That may not go over well.

Helton: So… how much do you think your buyer of interceptor information might pay for a mostly whole if slightly used ship?

Lag:
If we did just snag one,
that’s
going to be an interesting negotiation. Could be complicated; information can be hard to trace, entire late-model ships are bit harder to sterilize. But let’s get out of here before we count any profits, shall we?

CUT TO

INT - DAY
- Bridge of
HMS Hussein

The main screen shows a cockpit camera view of the last interceptor’s pilot, Walid, along with various critical systems readouts. The readouts are fluctuating wildly. Prince Walid looks desperately this way and that at the controls of his ship, flicking switches, making changes, trying to find
something
that will get him out of his predicament. He is being crushed back into his seat, then shaken violently. He screams incoherently, a scream of pain and terror that echoes around the bridge. The camera view goes blank, and the critical systems displays all flat line, then read NO DATA, like three others beside it. The commander of the
HMS Hussein
is shocked, and the whole bridge looks at the screens in mute fear, wondering what happened, how imminent victory became destruction. Silence falls.

O
n the nearly blank main screen transponder data flickers on in the lower right.

Name:
Irony

Class: Nightmare

Registered: Nowhere is home